The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) is deeply disappointed at substance of the proposed new planning provisions from the Victorian Government’s work on Planning for Sustainable Animal Industries. Despite our efforts to assist Agriculture Victoria and the relevant ministers in understanding the practical realities of small-scale livestock farmers, the draft graduated controls don’t appear to reduce red tape for small-scale commercial farmers, nor homesteaders or hobbyists, and yet they make it easier than ever before to set up a 1000-cattle feedlot.

“It’s completely bizarre,” said AFSA President Tammi Jonas, a small-scale pastured pig and cattle farmer from Victoria. “The proposed new controls would mean that farms like mine with 12 sows and 2 boars, so about 100 pigs on 10 hectares of our 28-hectare farm at any time, would have to apply for a permit just like those with 1,000 pigs in a shed, and yet the farmer next door could put up to 1,000 cattle in a feedlot right up to our fence line without a permit nor a buffer. Whose interest does this really serve?”

Under the proposed new provisions, a hobbyist poultry grower could have up to 200 birds without a permit, but a 50m setback from dwellings on another property would apply. The next level, allegedly designed to better enable low-risk small-scale pastured livestock production in the Farming Zone, only allows up to 450 birds and requires a 100m setback – a prohibitive requirement on smallholdings that may be only 100m wide in some cases. For pigs, the ‘streamlined application process’ would only apply to farms with up to 8 sows and 1 boar plus ‘only’ their progeny, ruling out buying in new breeding stock to maintain genetic diversity, a real concern for the heritage breeds movement.

“This is a system designed to encourage huge intensive poultry farms and make it much harder for small scale, sustainable farms. It means that small farmers will yet again have to wade through huge amounts of red-tape - just the same as large-scale intensive farms. It’s just not viable,” exclaimed award-winning pastured poultry farmer Bruce Burton of Milking Yard Farm.

Small-scale farms would now become classified as Broiler Farms and be subject to the Victorian Code for Broiler Farms 2009. This means small growers with 500 broiler chickens spread across 20 hectares will be treated the same as farms with 500,000 birds in sheds.

The scheme fails to take account of the stocking density.

The scheme allows large intensive shed farms to add free range outdoor areas without any restrictions at all. It allows these farms to add 150,000 chickens to a range area without any of the restrictions placed on a small farmer with 500 chickens.

AFSA met with Agriculture Victoria prior to the public release and conducted a survey of small-scale livestock growers, sharing the 80 responses with the Department that showed how out of touch the stocking rates for streamlined applications were. We highlighted the regenerative practices many of these farms pride themselves on, such as frequent moves of animals, mobile housing and feed infrastructure, and a focus on maintaining pasture year round.

We are mystified at how poorly the draft planning provisions acknowledge the actual risks to environment and amenity presented by our members’ farms. The proposal to allow cattle feedlots of up to 1,000 cattle in the Farming Zone without a permit nor a setback from neighbours, while 100 pigs or 450 poultry in highly mobile systems trigger the notice and review process, suggests that there may not merely be ignorance of small-scale farming systems, but something more sinister at play.

We call on Minister for Agriculture Jaala Pulford and Minister for Planning Richard Wynne to explain why small-scale pastured pig and poultry farms are to be subjected to greater scrutiny and compliance costs than cattle feedlots, instead of being treated under the law like other grazing systems that rely on supplemental feed such as the majority of Victorian beef and dairy cattle.

If we see biotech as part of a small farmer's 'toolbox', then we must ask what it is we are 'fixing':

Ensuring resilience in the face of climate change

Ensuring smallholders’ livelihoods are maintained & promoted

Ensuring everyone has access to nutritious and culturally-appropriate food produced in ethical and ecologically sound ways, and their right to democratically determine their own food and agriculture systems.

The focus of our discussion here was proposed to be on “sustainable” “food systems” for “small farmers” not “high yield” to generate “more money” from “small pieces of land.” And yet the meeting has presented many solutions that are still in the lab, and products with very initial results. The current supply of food already exceeds demand but there are serious issues around good governance and equitable distribution of food. Merely securing a high yield of a few select crops does not solve the problem of hunger nor secure livelihoods for smallholders, and leads to high levels of post-harvest spoilage and food waste.

There has been a lot of discussion about what we mean by biotechnology, and yet the majority of the focus of the conference has been on GMO products. It is malicious and deceptive to refer to GM crops as "biotech crops".

Those technologies that manipulate DNA artificially increase corporate control over seeds, diminish rich, diverse diets of local communities, promote monoculture, increase biosafety risks to health and environment, and need high investment and complicated regulatory frameworks which many countries lack. We ask those from the private sector who are calling for international acceptance of their products once approved in one country whether they are prepared to accept global liability for their products once disseminated?

We’d like to remind the group that 80% of the world’s food is produced by small farmers and farmer autonomy is critical to maintaining current and future food security and food sovereignty for everyone. We reject solutions that increase the cost of production for farmers due to the high cost of inputs from transnational corporations. We respect farmers as true in-situ innovators and not as passive consumers of the ‘biotech toolbox’.

All present should keep in mind the FAO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples which includes Indigenous rights to:

Self-determination;

Free, Prior and Informed Consent;

Participation and collaboration;

Rights over land and other resources; and

Gender equality.

Governments and scientists must take a holistic view of addressing the negative consequences of industrialised agriculture and avoid a ‘bandaids on cancer’ approach when it is imperative to address the causes.

Rather than being distracted by the shiny technocratic solutions of the GMO industry, FAO should continue its important work on promoting farmers’ access to native and locally adapted seeds and breeds, markets and value chains, and on promoting agroecology as the best way to feed the world and face the challenges of climate change.

Australia’s First Slow Meat Symposium in Daylesford 3-5 September 2017

The Slow Meat mantra is 'eat better meat, less'. Australia’s first Slow Meat Symposium will bring together supporters, enablers, and enactors of the Slow Meat philosophy to discuss and debate all things around the ethical and ecologically-sound production and consumption of meat. Farmers, butchers, chefs, restaurateurs, retailers, administrators, and anyone interested in how animals are raised for meat are welcome.

The Slow Meat Symposium will be held in Daylesford 3-4 September 2017, with farm visits, butchery and cooking demos, feasts, and of course stimulating plenaries, and debates around how to progress the slow meat and food sovereignty agendas in Australia and globally.

There is an optional extra day (5 September) for the many farmers across Australia keen to see a revival of regional abattoirs in the face of steadily declining access to processing for small-scale, pastured livestock farms, led by international guest Amanda Carter, owner of Cool Hand Meats and operator of North Carolina leading small-scale poultry abattoir Foothills Pilot Plant.

The 2017 Slow Meat Symposium is a collaboration between Slow Food Central Highlands and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA).

Matthew Evans, host of SBS’s Gourmet Farmer and For the Love of Meat, and author of nine books on food, will present his vision for a slow meat future at the Symposium.

River Cottage Australia’s Paul West will MC the main day, and discussions around the ethics & ecological impact of the production and processing of meat will be led by local regenerative livestock farmer and butcher Tammi Jonas of Jonai Farms & Meatsmiths, and purveyor of ethically-raised meats Grant Hilliard of Sydney’s acclaimed butcher’s shop Feather & Bone.

Gary Thomas, Leader of the Slow Food Central Highlands Convivium, has said, “Slow Meat is a philosophy for living now, and a vision for the future. The Slow Meat Symposium with AFSA will be an exciting and positive exchange of what we are doing, and how we can do it better”.

AFSA Interim President Tammi Jonas said, “AFSA is delighted to host this event with Slow Food Central Highlands. We welcome the opportunity to gather people and have serious & delicious discussions around the ethics & ecological impacts of producing & consuming meat."

Hopeful, Mr Carter today met with the Member for Franklin, Nic Street and Acting Chairman of the Tasmanian Dairy Industry Authority (TDIA), Mark Sayer. At the meeting, it was explained to Mr Carter, that even sharing raw milk with friends at his own kitchen table would be in breach of the Act, because even though he would not be 'selling' raw milk, he would still be 'distributing' it.

"I can legally allow you to sit at my dining room table and offer you a can of coke and a cigarette but I am unable to offer you a glass of fresh (raw) milk and a scone with clotted cream."

"How can you put your argument across when there is no room for negotiation? The bottom line is the government think they have the right to take away your freedom of choice," said Mr Carter.

This comes on the back of a difficult period faced by Vicki Jones from Mountain View Organic Dairy. In 2014 Labor Minister Jane Garrett and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services made an impulsive decision to taint unpasteurised milk in response to an investigation into the death of a toddler, as a result of suspected E-coli.

Initial media reporting censured Mountain View Organic Dairy, however, recent Coroner’s report findings (24 October, 2016), appear to have softened the public reproach and found no fault with Mountain View.

Vicki Jones from Mountain View Organic Dairy said, “Our heart went out to the family involved because the situation would have been unbearable. However, we followed government regulation to the letter and were not found at fault by the Coroner’s investigation.

“Unfortunately, the government and Minister Garrett did more than taint the taste of unpasteurised milk, they tainted the reputation of our business by failing to work with us or support us during this difficult period,” said Ms Jones.

Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA) President Sally Ruljancich asks, “Why do governing bodies continually shift responsibility onto producers? What has happened to the consumers’ right to choose and the responsibility of government to educate consumers?”

“Decisions like these by government do not have the interests of consumers or local farmers at heart. Instead heavy-handed legislation means the government can simply shut down situations that otherwise might require proactive action. Because that is easier than working with us, to empower consumers and assist them making informed purchasing decisions.”

“We support a renewed conversation between raw milk producers, raw milk drinkers and the government. Raw milk is consumed safely around the world; what is needed is safe, fair regulation, otherwise the raw milk drinking community will continue to exercise their choices in an unregulated market,” said Ms Ruljancich.

Celebrity Chef and star of River Cottage Australia Paul West is a vigilant campaigner for local producers, and asks government for further industry support.

“Our local food industry needs backing from governing bodies to assist consumers to make informed decisions, not impetuous reaction that threatens to foreclose local agribusiness,” said Mr West.

The Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance has been running a campaign to raise funds for a Legal Defence Fund to protect farmers’ and eaters’ right to determine their own food and agriculture systems. To find out more visit: afsa.org.au